Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn is a tactical role-playing game created by Intelligent Systems. Originally released in Japan in February 22, 2007 and later in North America in November 5, 2007. This game is a sequel to Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance for the Gamecube, which also featured FMV cutscenes as well.

Plot. Radiant Dawn is divided into four parts. The First Part begins with a resistance group known as the Dawn Brigade, led by Sothe and Micaiah, to drive the greedy Begnion Empire off of Daein, after the country lost the war to Crimea, and the death of Mad King Ashnard. In the second part, Elincia has ruled Crimea for three years, but there are many people against her rule, and the tyrannical Duke Ludveck of Felirae, is determined to overthrow her. Then, Gallia goes to war with Begnion for the destruction of the heron forest of Serenes, this war causes a worldwide conflict, which in the next part becomes a battle to save the world from a dark goddess, who almost awakened during the Mad King's war.

Gameplay. Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn is a strategic RPG game, just like it's predecessors. Radiant Dawn features two types of supports: Buddy supports and Bond supports. Buddy supports (simply called Supports in previous games) increase their characters' battle stats dependent on the elemental affinity and support level of both Buddies. Unlike in previous games, characters can be Buddies with any other character, but can only have one Buddy at a time. Also, Buddy supports can be deleted. Characters in Buddy supports can have a short conversation during each battle. Bond supports, which also appeared in Path of Radiance, are between two specific characters and are always present. There is also Dark and Light magic, which are very useful most of the time. Fire Emblem to me is more like a massive game of checkers and chess, all rolled into one.

Characters. Most of the characters such as Ike, Elincia, The Black Knight and so on, return in this game. However, like every Fire Emblem game, whenever one of your party members die, he or she will never return, unlike every RPG game. So keep your characters alive if possible, and a better way to do that is to make a patient and careful strategy.

Strategies. Fire Emblem is like a combined game of checkers and chess. Whenever one of your party members die, he or she will never come back. So you must time your tactics and be patient most of all. There are two types of fighting: Close range and long distance. Long distance fighters are mostly powerful against wizards and pegasus knights. Sword warriors overpower axe warriors, axes beat lances, and lance warriors beat swords.

Music. Ike's Theme is one of my favorites in the game, since it reminded me on the scene where he appears in Brawl during the SSE storyline. But most of the music in battle sequences and FMV's are masterful artwork.

History. The first Fire Emblem game was released in 1990 on the Family Computer. It was called Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragons and Blade of Light. The first game was remade as Mystery of the Emblem for the Super NES. But before that, the sequel Fire Emblem: Gaiden was released in 1992. In 1996, Genealogy of the Holy War was released. In the late 90's, Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 was released, featuring new combat modes such as: the Fog of War, and so on. After Thracia 776, the series went on hiatus. Fire Emblem: Sealed Sword was released in March 29, 2002 for the Game Boy Advance in Japan, with Roy as the main character. Roy is a playable character in Super Smash Bros Melee. The first Fire Emblem game released in America was Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword, and the second one released was The Sacred Stones. Later the first FE game released worldwide on the Gamecube was Path of Radiance, and on the Wii, Radiant Dawn. Recently a remake of the first game was released for the DS, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon. The series is successful, although it's too bad it does not get the same respect as Final Fantasy

PoR connection. If a Gamecube memory card with a cleared Path of Radiance save is inserted, data can be transferred from the save file. Path of Radiance characters who have attained high statistics or weapon levels will receive corresponding boosts to their Radiant Dawn counterparts. Transferred A-level supports become Bond supports in Radiant Dawn, and the support conversations unlocked can be read in a support library after the game is completed. Coins collected are transferred to Ike in Part 3, where they can be used in the game's weapon forging system.

Rantings. Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn has a reputation for it's staggering difficulty, as when you play the Normal, and Hard Difficulty in the game, you are gravely outnumbered, and the enemies and bosses are FAR stronger. The difficulty will make you cry, pissed off, break your Wii Controller, and so on. Also, I disliked the character Meg, because no matter how strong she is, she will easily get owned. Meg's defenses, attacks, and speed are extremely low. I also disliked the Mercy technique, in which the enemy's HP will be down to 1. For Mercy I would say that was a bad choice for Elincia. Because sometimes, mercy can lead to the enemy taking advantage of the naivety of Elincia, and get her killed. Pelleas is absolutely weak in battle.

Good Aspect. I really enjoyed the divided, then unified storylines of the game. Also, Ike's return truly defined the game as well. The PoR connection of the game helps gamers get farther a lot better. Also I found it interesting that somethings can be done when you beat the game the second time, such as recruiting Pelleas, and also, if some things are done right in the game, you get to see the secret ending after credits.

Overall. For fans of RTS I recommend playing this game, because Fire Emblem is what gave birth to real-time strategy games. I give this a 9 out of 10, due to it's challenging gameplay and difficulty